


Dangerous Deliveries

by amaresu



Category: Leverage
Genre: Community: apocalyptothon, Gen, apocalypse: ice age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 14:32:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaresu/pseuds/amaresu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frozen airducts in an ice covered building present their own special challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dangerous Deliveries

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Krilymcc (KristiLynn)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KristiLynn/gifts).



> Never ending thanks to dramaturgca for betaing. Also she pointed out the fact that not everyone knows what a snowcat is. Basically it's a big vehicle used to get over snow/clear paths in the snow. [Here's a Wikipedia article on them.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowcat)

“Parker! Parker answer me!” Parker jerked awake, hitting her head on the side of the wall next to her. “Parker come on!”

Groaning she sat up a bit more carefully and looked at her ice covered surroundings for a second before answering, “I'm here. I'm fine. I think.”

“You think?” He sounded slightly hysterical, but that wasn't really anything new for Hardison. He tended to panic over the littlest things.

In her head she could picture Hardison pacing the small confines of the snowcat he'd found to replace Lucille. The image made her grin, “Yeah, one of the vertical shafts in the airduct was covered in ice. I didn't even see it until it broke apart. I think I hit my head, but it doesn't feel like a concussion.”

Eliot broke in, “Can you stand? How's your eyesight?”

“I'm fine.” It was nice that they worried, but it wasn't as if she'd never fallen down anything before. Carefully she got to her feet, swaying slightly, and looked around and up and sighed, “I don't think I can get back up the shaft. It's completely covered in ice and I don't have the right equipment.” She hoped Eliot didn't notice she hadn't answered him because he'd be able to tell if she lied about not seeing double.

“Not a problem.” It was comforting to hear Nate make statements like that. Even when she knew he was making things up as he went along, it was nice to hear him pretend to be in control. It gave her a warm fuzzy feeling and already she was convinced that everything would be fine. “What else do you see Parker?”

She stumbled slightly as she turned in a circle to look, “I've got vents heading off two directions, east and west.”

“Okay, give me a second girl and I'll get you headed back in the right direction,” Hardison told her and she leaned against the wall to wait, secure in the knowledge that he wouldn't let her down.

“Whichever one it is hurry up,” Sophie hissed over the radio from her place outside the laboratory doors. “I'm not sure how much longer I can pretend to be opening these locks.”

“Right, I gotcha Parker.” Hardison started and within seconds she was on her way.

It was only after she started crawling through the new airduct that she realized her forehead was bleeding. She grimaced as she wiped it away, blinked a few times to clear her suddenly clouded vision, and concentrated on Hardison's voice. They were in the middle of a race and the only thing slowing down the other team was Sophie. Sophie who had to pretend to take forever to open doors while making it seem like she was going as fast as she could. All Parker had to do was climb through some frozen-over airducts in an ice and snow encrusted building. Get the plans and get out, Eliot would get Sophie out, and then a nice ride back to civilization and warmth in Annabelle the snowcat.

It took her a second to realize that Hardison and Nate were yelling in her ear again, to realize she'd stopped moving. There was a small pool of blood freezing over in front of her, but she ignored it, ignored the blood and the way everything seemed a little bit colder than it had ten minutes ago. “I'm here, I'm fine, just a little woozy. Nothing to worry about.”

There was furious whispers that she couldn't make out and she knew Nate and Hardison were arguing about whether to pull her out or not, “Guys, I'm in already. We can't risk Sophie and it'll be just as much trouble for me to back track. I'm finishing the job.”

“Okay,” Nate paused and she knew he was running his hands through his hair, “If you say you can go on we go on. Eliot make sure you're ready to pull Sophie out at a moment's notice. Parker just go where Hardison tells you.”

It was easy to just follow the voice in her ear. Turn right, turn left, drop down a level, and kick out a vent, easy peasy lemon squeezy. “Parker, you sure you're okay?”

“I said that out loud?” She hadn't meant to and the way Hardison was talking she knew he knew she hadn't meant to, which meant he was probably freaking out again. Which she'd been trying to keep him from doing. “Doesn't matter, I'm here.”

Afterwards she's not quite sure how she got from the abandoned lab back out to the snow cat, she has a vague impression of stumbling through snow drifts and leaning against lampposts. The next thing she knows Hardison is hugging her and helping her lay down on one of the couches. “Nate start her up,” is the last thing she hears before the comfortable rumble of Annabelle puts her to sleep.

It's later, she's not sure how much later, when Eliot is making her wake up and follow his finger with her eyes. She doesn't want to, instead wants to stare at the anxious faces Hardison is making and giggle, but she knows the drill. She follows his finger and stares at a light and admits to all the dizziness and weird vision she'd been hiding before. It's not long after that Eliot pronounces her mildly concussed and Sophie wraps her in blankets. She leans against Hardison when he sits next to her on the couch with his cobbled together laptop, going through the information he retrieved. They take turns making sure she doesn't fall asleep and Eliot gives her a power bar to chew on.

It'll be six days before they get back to Mexico. Longer until they get the powerplant designs to their client. Longer still before the new designs can make their way out into the world, free of charge, and people can stop freezing to death. She knows it'll be a long time before the world adapts to the new ice age, but maybe one day they'll be able to go back to Boston and dig out the bar.


End file.
